Residents in Hong Kong line to take nucleic acid test. Photo: VCG

Experts from the National Health Commission (NHC) on Friday held a video conference with experts and officials in Hong Kong to share experiences in treating COVID-19 cases while daily new cases exceeded 10,000 in HK Special Administrative Region for the first time that day.

More than 20 people, including officials from the NHC, Hong Kong Food and Environmental Hygiene Department and Hospital Authority, and experts from both sides attended the conference. The mainland experts shared their treating strategy and methods to treat severe cases and special groups with their counterparts in Hong Kong, noting that they would provide full support to help Hong Kong combat the epidemic and treat cases, China Central Television (CCTV) reported. 

Hong Kong experts discussed the situation in Hong Kong during the fifth wave of the outbreak and said that they would like to borrow experiences from the mainland, according to CCTV.   

Hong Kong reported 10,010 new confirmed cases and 47 new deaths on Friday. The day before, local officials revealed that total positive cases during the fifth wave outbreak in the city had exceeded 60,000 and there was no sign of a slowdown at present.  

Ho Pak-leung, an infectious diseases expert from the University of Hong Kong, told media that he estimated that about 200,000 Hong Kong residents probably had been infected in the past four weeks. The cases that had been discovered and reported only accounted for a third of them
  
Ho urged Hong Kong people to get vaccinated as soon as possible. He also suggested the Hong Kong government seek support from the mainland if the former could not mobilize local private medical institutes to help in the fight against the outbreak.

The outbreak not only brought about a heavy burden to the city's medical system, but has seriously damaged the local economy. 

Financial Secretary of Hong Kong Paul Chan Mo-po said that the local economy performed badly in the first quarter and it is even possible to see negative growth, and the outbreak can be put under control in two to three months.

A temporary isolation facility for COVID-19 patients at Penny's Bay on February 25, 2022 in Hong Kong. The mainland commissioned a construction team to build 10,000 isolation and treatment units for patients at Penny's Bay and Kai Tak Cruise Terminal. Photo: VCG

Chan said he expects the economy of Hong Kong to improve in the second half of the year and travel without isolation between the city and the mainland could be resumed in the second or third quarter. It is even possible to resume international travel this year after the local vaccination rate is raised. 

Based on previous Omicron-dominated outbreaks in South Africa, the US, the UK and Japan, Zhuang Shilihe, a Guangzhou-based expert, told the Global Times on Friday that it is possible the outbreak in Hong Kong can be put under control in about two months. 

Hong Kong's neighboring province Gungdong in South China has sent two teams of experts to the city. The central government is also helping the city construct four Fangcang makeshift hospitals in Tsing Yi, Yuen Long and Hung Shui Kiu, which are expected to provide 14,000 to 17,000 quarantine places for Hong Kong residents. The one in Tsing Yi would be put into use in a week. 

"We are not capable of receiving all the patients as the size of our quarantine facilities could not match the growth rate of new infections. But with the firm support of the central government, I am confident of conquering this crisis," Fan Hung-ling, chairman of the Hong Kong Hospital Authority, told the Global Times in a previous interview. 

Media reported that Guangdong is also organizing a third support team to Hong Kong of more than 1,000 people, most of whom are nucleic acid testing personnel.